


Hunted

by eeminxs



Series: Freedom [1]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer, twil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 06:17:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14826939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeminxs/pseuds/eeminxs
Summary: What exactly happened between Edward and Bella before the events in Freedom? Find out here.Sorry about the bad summary...this is the chapter I wrote that started the work of Freedom.





	Hunted

**April, 2005**

"The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me."  
                 - Twilight Preface, Stephanie Myers

**Bella**

I braced myself for the pain that was coming, frozen to the spot on the golden yellow hardwood floors and unable to think beyond the terror now that the relief had passed. As James went on about Alice and why he picked me of all people, the fog slowly cleared. By the time he slumped forward, into a crouch I recognized, and his pleasant smile slowly widened, till it wasn’t a smile at all but a contortion of teeth, exposed and glistening. I couldn’t help myself—I tried to run.

As useless as I knew it would be, as weak as my knees already were, panic took over and I bolted for the emergency door. He was in front of me in a flash. I didn’t see if he used his hand or his foot, it was too fast. A crushing blow struck my chest—I felt myself flying backward, and then heard the crunch as my head bashed into the mirrors. The glass buckled, some of the pieces shattering and splintering on the floor beside me. I was too stunned to feel the pain. I couldn’t breathe yet. He walked toward me slowly.

“That’s a very nice effect,” he said, examining the mess of glass, his voice friendly again. “I thought this room would be visually dramatic for my little film. That’s why I picked this place to meet you. It’s perfect, isn’t it?”

I ignored him, scrambling on my hands and knees, crawling toward the other door. He was over me at once, his foot stepping down hard on my leg. I heard the sickening snap before I felt it. But then I did feel it, and I couldn’t hold back my scream of agony. I twisted up to reach for my leg, and he was standing over me, smiling.

“Would you like to rethink your last request?” he asked pleasantly.

His toe nudged my broken leg and I heard a piercing scream. With a shock, I realized it was mine.

Shaking my head, I felt my head slammed into something and soon a wetness began soaking in my hair. Realizing that it was blood and seeing the hunger descend upon James, I screamed as my body seemed to vibrate with fear, knowing time had run out. I sensed death was closing quickly upon me. The amount of pain was too great and almost no vampire could resist the blood the mirror had inflicted on me. Yes, I had longed for death since meeting Edward and learning his secret, but this wasn’t the kind of death I wanted.

As James sank his teeth into my upper shoulder and began to feed, I heard Edward along with Carlisle and Alice enter the studio. A sense of relief washed over me, even as fire began engulfing my arm. As Edward and Carlisle grabbed James, Alice stood protectively over Bella, fangs flashing. Lost in a haze of burning fire that was steadily getting worse, I just watched from the ground, memorized as the two male vampires tore James’ body apart piece by piece. Once James’ body was dismembered and set ablaze, the attention turned to me.

Already gasping, I knew I was shuddering and trembling as waves of fire courses throughout my body faster and faster. Wishing to scream, but unable to due to the trauma James inflected to my throat when be had chocked me trying to drain me dry, I looked helplessly up at Carlisle as he began examining me. Unable to withstand the pain further, I passed out, looking at those golden eyes.

\--------

“Bella? Can you hear me?” Edward asked desperately, holding onto her hand.

“Carlisle, I’m sorry, I can't stay,” apologized Alice as she left, holding her breath.

Nodding, Charsile continued examining Bella. “She has a concussion, the scalp laceration isn’t too bad, despite how much it’s bleeding. Head wounds tend to bleed,” he explained to a worried looking Edward. “Some ribs are likely broken, her right leg is most defiantly as well, but how bad, I won’t know …”

He was cut off as Bella screamed loudly and continuously, awaking herself partially. Startled, Edward and Charsile looked at each other as neither had moved to touch her elsewhere.

“What is going on?” by now, Edward was frantic as Bella was thrashing around and still screaming.

Checking her over quickly from the bottom up, Charsile started looking over her right arm when all of a sudden, Bella stopped moving completely. Looking over her other arm, the doctor found the deep bite mark, telling them both why Bella had suddenly passed out again and why her heart was suddenly racing.

  
“Edward…” he said hopelessly, showing his son what had happened after taking a deep breath in near Bella's heart.

Choking out the words, Edward pleaded, “There has to be something. Anything.”

“Listen to her heart, how much faster it is going already. I don’t know if you can, but the smell of the blood isn't fully human anymore. I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” Carlisle sincerely apologized. He may have not been sure about Bella, but what was done was done and now it had to be dealt with.

“Can you and Alice take care of the studio? I need to take Bella to Alaska,” he looked towards Alice, who had come in after hearing the news, not knowing if anything was being heard by Edward.

“Of course, than we'll meet you up there. I’ll also call the family and tell them to let the tribe know what happened here.”

Nodding, Charsile picked Bella up and reminded her, “Make sure to take the tape with you. We need to watch it just in case.”

Nodding again, she sadly smiled as he left, Edward still motionless on the ground.

“Come on, big bro, faster this is done, the sooner we can see Bella.”

“I never wanted this life for her.”

“I know.”

“I know I told her I loved her, but sometimes I wondered if I was just…” he trailed off, unsure how to articulate what he was feeling.

“Lonely? Confused? Terrified that this was the one chance to be with someone?” asked Alice gently, having heard of the conflicting feelings Jasper read off of Edward and also her own blurry visions of a different, and possibly better, future he could have.

Neither one said anything, only supported Edward as both felt someone had to choose their own path. Besides, Alice loved being around Bella, it was nice having a friend outside of the family.

“Yes, and now that this has happened?” Edward chuckled darkly as he began helping dismantle the studio to appear as if it was vandalized before being burned. “Why does this happen when I was already so confused? What do I tell her if she wakes up?”

Pausing, Alice thought a moment before suggesting, “Now, you take some time and think, really think, of what you want your future to look like, who you would want in it, and see if Bella fits that picture. You are not responsible for the choices she makes here on out. Our family will guide her, but it’s up to you and her to make a relationship work if you so desire.”

Contemplating it, Edward simply nodded, choosing to simply focus on the task at hand.

When everything was finally set up, Alice spoke up to prepare Edward, “Once Jasper comes with the car, the two of us are going to head back to Forks in hopes of delaying questions. Unfortunately, you and Charsile won’t be able to spend more than a week with Bella.”

Holding up her hand to stop the protest, she reminded him, “If we don’t want anyone to suspect we had something to do with Bella disappearing, we need to make it appear as though you tried to find her, but couldn't.”

Closing his eyes briefly, Edward slowly let out an unneeded breath, “Your right. Let's get going, as it is, it will take over a day to get to Denali.”

Huffing him, Alice watched with saddened eyes as he climbed into the car before she and Jasper ran to the airport to catch the plane he had booked.

 

 **Forks, Washington**  
**One Week Later**

  
Just as Charsile and Edward drove up to their house, the family came rushing out to greet them with a flurry of questions.

  
“How are you?” “Is Bella doing okay?” “Did you run into trouble?” “What are we going to do about this considering the humans?”

That last one came from Rosalie, drew a sharp look from Charsile.

“We'll deal with what comes as it comes,” he said warily. “Bella is doing amazingly well for a newborn vampire. Hopefully, the pattern will continue and the Denali family is more than willing to help her out until you school has ended for the year.”

Seeing the looks pass between everyone, Charsile added in an effort to reassure them, “For some odd reason, she seems much more capable of resisting human blood than those a decade old.”

“How do you know that? Emse asked in horror. “Surely she hasn’t been around humans?”

Speaking up for the first time, Edward reported that while hunting, somehow a couple of humans were in the same area. “I honestly don’t understand how they came to be there, as typically no one around. However, Bella smelled them and started running after them. I tried to catch her, but somehow, she realized what she was doing and stopped abruptly before running the opposite way.”

Murmurs of amazement went through the Cullens.

As Edward grabbed the small bags he and Charsile had, the group started making their way into the house before all of them heard voices shouting at them. Whipping around, they saw the La Push pack and knew instantly why they were there.

In hopes of preventing a fight, Alice spoke quickly, “I realize what you may have heard sounds bad. And yes, Bella is now a vampire, but we did not change her. We did everything we could to prevent it and can show you the tape made by the tracker James created as he attacked Bella in Phoenix if you haven’t had a chance to see it.”

“We saw it, but it doesn’t matter,” Sam spat out. “You and yours are responsible for the change, therefore breaking the treaty you made with our ancestors. You know the price for it.”

“The treaty was that would harm no one and in fact, do our best to protect others, in addition to staying off your reservation,” Charsile pointed out. “None of that has been broken.”

“I still say it doesn’t matter. If it wasn’t for you blood suckers, this wouldn’t have happened!” Sam crouched down a bit, as if ready to attack.

“Wait a minute,” Jacob spoke up. “Although it is true that having those things around here may have been why that blood suckers took Bella, considering they were already coming through this area, something still could have happened. Maybe more people could have gotten hurt if not for the Cullens, blood suckers or not,” he reasoned.

“I am the leader and what I say goes,” Sam declared, getting into Jacob’s face.

Despite being a few inches shorter and not quite as filled out, Jacob still didn’t back down, “You may be the alpha, but remember whose blood holds the true alpha role.”

“Are you challenging me?” asked an indigent and incredulous sounding Sam.

“I am challenging what right you have to bend a treaty to your ideas and then accuse them of breaking it to justify an attack.”

Each of them seemed to radiate anger and began shaking. It was a matter of seconds before both transformed into their wolves and began fighting for the alpha role. Sam got the upper hand quickly, tossing Jacob as though he was a mere rag dog. Shaking himself off from the hard impact first from the tree and then the ground, Jacob wasn’t prepared for Sam to dodge under him and ram his head hard into his stomach.

Hitting out randomly with a paw, Jacob was pleasantly surprised to catch Sam off guard. Although it wasn’t that hard of a hit, it was enough to send him flying back a few feet, as well as allow Jacob a couple seconds to catch his breath. Angry that he was being taken so easily, Jacob grew angrier and went on the defense. Hitting, head bunting, and biting, it appeared to both the Cullens and the La Push wolves not fighting, Jacob was done with Sam's harsh rules. Within a couple more minutes, with Sam on his back, belly exposed, head tilted while Jacob bit into his neck hard. As soon as he let go, Jacob howled his triumph as the victor.

Ducking behind a tree to change into the extra pair of shorts one member always carried with him, Jacob took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how to exactly handle being the alpha and never really wished to be the leader in the first place. Then again, he also hated the harshness of Sam, the hypocritical and bitter nature of the older man. Shrugging, as nothing could be changed now that he had challenged and won the fight for alpha, Jacob came back to the front of the Cullens home where the two groups stood far enough away.

Charsile went forward and held out his hand, eventually dropping it when he saw the reluctance of Jacob.

“I wish to thank you for not allow Sam to force us to fight.”

“Look,” Jacob said. “You know I really don’t care for you guys. However, my dad taught me to never break a promise and as long as you keep to the treaty, you don’t need to worry about the pack coming after you as long as I am alpha. If they do, just let me know.”

Nodding, Charsile thanked him again, this time along with Emse. Ordering his pack to follow him, Jacob and the others left.

“Now, we will just have Charlie to deal with,” Alice practically bounced up the front steps.

“Any clue how to deal with him,” Edward now more worried about dealing with Bella's father as he was the police chief.

“We just have to wait and see,” Alice said.

Sure enough, right after school the following day, Charlie was there waiting for Edward. Asking politely for a bit of time to talk, but in a tone that said it clearly wasn’t a choice, Edward followed him to the police station. In the first of a few interviews, Edward repeatedly told Charlie that although he and his dad had gone to apologize to Bella, however, when they got to Phoenix, they couldn’t find her. After a week, Charlie forced him to come back as he had school. It wasn’t until Bella wrote a note which was mailed from New York City that Charlie believed Edward’s statement.

Glad that after only a few weeks, things had finally settled down, although the ripumor mill at Forks High was still going, Edward finally had a chance to think about what he wanted his future tor be and the questions he had for himself.

  
**Denali, Alaska**  
**July, 2005**

“You’re actually leaving?” Bella whined. “I thought we'd be able to work things out if you stayed here.”

“We have gone over this,” Edward reminded her as patiently as he could, trying not to sound as though he was speaking through clenched teeth. “Even before Phoenix, I was questioning the relationship between us. I never was quite sure if I was drawn to you just based on your smell and then the relief of having someone who didn't hate me for who I am which made it easier to believe that we could be happy together. Unfortunately, I find that we seem to want different things out of our…existences.”

Knowing, he was hurting her with his words, Edward softened his tone, “I do wish I had backed away from you earlier. Maybe then you wouldn’t be damned to this curse and I hope some day you forgive me for it. However, I know if I let my guilt cloud the fact that we really don’t have much in common.”

“Are you ever going to come back to see me, maybe give us another chance?” Bella asked softly.

“I’m sorry, but no,” Edward said bluntly as it seemed she still wasn’t quite getting the fact they had broken up almost as soon after her transformation.

True, it may be that he was refusing to point out some of the main issue he had with her, but he really didn’t want to hear more lies from her, nor was he ready for her to learn about his life without her.

“I was happy to help you adjust to everything, but when I thought about what l really wanted and needed, I realized that, as much as I care for you, I wasn’t going to find fulfilment with you. That would end up hurting you and I do care enough about you to want you to find happiness with your true mate.”

Nodding, Bella looked away, unsure what to say. Edward gave her one last glance and wishing her well in his mind, he joined his siblings in the car. It was time to move forward.


End file.
